The first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine seemed an appropriate time to look at the size of the bizjet fleet registered in Russia. RANA Director Brian T Richards has taken a snapshot of the RA- registered fleet in 2022 and compared it with the latest available data from official and unofficial sources.

The conclusion is striking. The number of bizjets registered in Russia has increased by just over 35%, with the bulk of these aircraft being de-registered from a small number of ‘offshore’ and onshore registries known to be popular with Russian owners. The vast majority of the newly added aircraft come under the large cabin bizjet/corporate airliner category.

In February 2022 the RA-register hosted 102 bizjets. The latest data shows a total of 138. The gross increase is 45 airframes, which have been registered since February last year, with the net difference of nine accounted for by non-related de-registrations. The net increase can largely be attributed to aircraft with Russian connections being de-registered and then RA-registered to allow continued domestic operation in the face of international sanctions.

The table below breaks down the 45 aircraft added Russian bizjet register by type since February 2022.

Airbus ACJ318/319/320 5
Bombardier Global XRS/5000/6000/7500 16
Boeing BBJ1 3
Bombardier Challenger 650 2
Bombardier Challenger 850 1 G
Dassault Falcon 2000 1
Dassault Falcon 8X 2
Embraer Legacy 600/650 8
Gulfstream G450 3
Gulfstream G550 2
Gulfstream G650 2

The following breaks down the 45 by previous state of registration, where applicable.

CS-Portugal 1
LX-Luxembourg 1
M-Isle of Man 11
(New build) 2
OE-Austria 5
P4-Aruba 3
T7-San Marino 5
VP/VQ-B Bermuda 12
VP-C Cayman Islands 2
9H-Malta 3